Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Canon RAW saves the Day!

I admit that this still isn't all that great of an image, but it was an outstanding opportunity!

I saw this turkey getting ready to fly across a stream. It happened so quickly that I was barely able to get the camera to my eye and fire before it was all over. Unfortunately the meter was influenced by the dark area in the center and left portion of the picture and the resulting image was grossly overexposed. It was too bright to salvage had I shot it in jpeg. Since it was shot in RAW I was able to get detail in the highlights, but no part of the turkey is completely sharp. I should have had the camera set in burst mode, then I would have had several frames to choose from. It would have been nice to have captured him just a few feet further to the left so that none of the body was obscured.

Canon 40-D: 300mmF4@f4.5-1/350 sec. ISO 400

Bee On Peach Blossom-Canon 40-D: 100mmF2.8 Macro
f11@1/125 sec. ISO 200

In this instance the subject was static and I was able to use a tripod to steady the camera and a reflector to assist in lighting the subject. It was windy, so I had to shoot between the gusts of wind.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have Photoshop or Elements? You can sometimes get the details out of the dark area but it will look grainy. I seldom shoot in raw but might start when I get my new camera.

Getting that has been a nightmare. Some of these camera companies advertising in magazines and online have very tricky ads and you got to be careful as they are selling the new models with old lens.

Anyway, I like your two photos.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Willard: It's a great capture no matter what. Birds are so hard to capture is the wild and you and Salty do a great job.
The bee shot is also interesting. It does look like it is clinging to the flowers edge.

Tom said...

Two great pictures and again this word 'RAW' as cropped up.. I need to learn more about this...
Tom

Stacey Olson said...

Great shot. I am still working on RAW. I only have DPP at this point and it will do as much with a JPG as a RAW( as far as I know) so I just use JPG. My camera only shoots Raw in the manual zone and I am not real confident at that zone YET. Then I convert to TIFF to save. Great shot and I agree with fishing guy that the bee looks like it is hanging on for dear life.. thanks willard

Anonymous said...

Never saw a turkey flying so that was great.

DeeMom said...

Great pictures

We sometime see our wild turkeys fly from a stone ridge across the highway down into our meadow...

You should see the trucks and cars SLOW down...it is some sight

Anonymous said...

Very nice peach blossom Willard. Don't you just love the breeze with a slow shutter speed?

I think you did a great job with highlight details on the the turkey and the trees. It's an awfully contrasty scene with direct light--always going to be a problem for fast shots like that one. Glad you're shooting RAW though. At least you can exercise control over the latent image.

BTW, I'm back online. Stop over and see what I've been having fun with the last couple of months.

Jim

Tom said...

Hi Willard
Called back to let you know that Peter was thrilled to see these last night.. and he wanted you to know it..
Catch you later.
Tom

Misty DawnS said...

I absolutely love that second picture! I can't wait until I have a professional camera and can learn from all of my friends like you.

Kerri Farley said...

Both are great pics! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bee on the blossom!

And I have a question for you.....
have you worked with "extenders" very much! I have been thinking about one. I have heard good things and not so good things. Any info you have would be appreciated!

You can email me (kerrik312000@yahoo.com)
or respond on your blog.....I'll check back!
Thanks!

Unknown said...

Nice macro;-)

Jeanie

Andree said...

I see the value of RAW now. I wasn't as clear before, but as always, a visual demonstration clarifies things. Beautiful shot.